Humankind Quotes - Page 6

• Although humankind inherently "desires to know", if open access to, and unlimited development of, knowledge henceforth puts us all in clear danger of extinction, then common sense demands that we re-examine our reverence for knowledge.

  Bill Joy

  Knowledge, Common Sense, Desire

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• There goes a saying, and 'twas shrewdly said, ''Old fish at table, but young flesh in bed.

  Alexander Pope

  Sex, Bed, Tables

  Alexander Pope (1856). “The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope”, p.90

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• Much more than our other needs and endeavors, it is sexuality that puts us on an even footing with our kind: the more we practice it, the more we become like everyone else: it is in the performance of a reputedly bestial function that we prove our status as citizens: nothing is more public than the sexual act.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Sex, Practice, Needs

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• For once you must try not to shirk the facts: mankind is kept alive by bestial acts.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Sex, Trying, Alive

  Bertolt Brecht (2015). “Brecht Collected Plays: 2: Man Equals Man; Elephant Calf; Threepenny Opera; Mahagonny; Seven Deadly Sins”, p.185, A&C Black

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• Perchance God will pity a race that sought the better angels of its nature and found only its lesser demons.

  Robert Breault

  Angel, Race, Demon

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• Often what we take for a kindness is just someone acting in their capacity as a human being.

  Robert Breault

  Kindness, Acting, Being Human

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• Inevitably we look upon society, so kind to you, so harsh to us, as an ill-fitting form that distorts the truth; deforms the mind; fetters the will.

  Virginia Woolf

  Sex, Mind, Looks

  Virginia Woolf (2007). “Selected Works of Virginia Woolf”, p.859, Wordsworth Editions

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• What more fiendish proof of cosmic irresponsibility than a Nature which, having invented sex as a way to mix genes, then permits to arise, amid all its perfumed and hypnotic inducements to mate, a tireless tribe of spirochetes and viruses that torture and kill us for following orders?

  John Updike

  Sex, Health, Order

  John Updike (2012). “Self-Consciousness: Memoirs”, p.230, Random House

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• After mature deliberation of counsel, the good Queen to establish a rule and immutable example unto all posterity, for the moderation and required modesty in a lawful marriage, ordained the number of six times a day as a lawful, necessary and competent limit.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Sex, Queens, Numbers

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• Liberation from every form of exploitation, the possibility of a more human and dignified life, the creation of a new humankind - all pass through this struggle.

  Gustavo Gutiérrez

  Struggle, Creation, Possibility

  Gustavo Gutiérrez (1988). “A theology of liberation: history, politics, and salvation”

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• For thousands of years humankind's finest minds have been struggling with the theoretical problem of finding the forms that would give peoples the possibility, without the greatest of torment, without internecine strife, of living side by side in friendship and brotherhood. Practically speaking, the first step in this direction is only being taken now, today.

  Mikhail Kalinin

  Struggle, Taken, Years

  "Survivor From An Unknown War: The Life of Isakjan Narzikul" by Stephen Lee Crane, (p. 3), 1999.

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• of all the foolish Fears of Humankind, Fear of the Future is by far the most foolish.

  Erica Jong

  Fear, Future, Foolish

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• Epicurus ... whose genius surpassed all humankind, extinguished the light of others, as the stars are dimmed by the rising sun.

  Lucretius

  Stars, Light, Atheism

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• Human life has no meaning independent of itself. There is no cosmic force or deity to give it meaning or significance. There is no ultimate destiny for man. Such a belief is an illusion of humankind's infancy. The meaning of life is what we choose to give it. Meaning grows out of human purposes alone. Nature provides us with an infinite range of opportunities, but it is only our vision and our action that select and realize those that we desire.

  Paul Kurtz

  Independent, Opportunity, Destiny

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• And I realized a wondrous truth: that knowledge could be our treasure, that there were things humankind knew that we did not, that our conquest need not comprise taking and killing, but could consist of our mutual conquest of ignorance and distrust.

  Rachel Hartman

  Ignorance, Needs, Treasure

  Rachel Hartman (2012). “Seraphina”, p.164, Random House

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• That's it! When you come to know men, that's how they are: too sensitive in the wrong place.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Men, Sensitive, Know Me

  D. H. Lawrence (2016). “Lady chatterleys lover”, p.205, D. H. Lawrence

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• In this century we have made remarkable material progress, but basically we are the same as we were thousands of years ago. Our spiritual needs are still very great.

  Dalai Lama

  Spiritual, Years, Progress

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• I have all my life been on my guard against the information conveyed by the sense of hearing -- it being one of my earliest observations, the universal inclination of humankind is to be led by the ears, and I am sometimes apt to imagine that they are given to men as they are to pitchers, purposely that they may be carried about by them.

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Men, Ears, May

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• If you believe in justice, if you believe in democracy, if you believe in people's rights, if you believe in the harmony of all humankind - then you have no choice but to back Fidel Castro as long as it takes!

  Harry Belafonte

  Believe, Rights, Long

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• Pride in their port, defiance in their eye, I see the lords of humankind pass by.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Eye, Pride, Lord

  'The Traveller' (1764) l. 327

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• The first priority of humankind in this era is to establish an effective system of world law that will assure peace with justice among the peoples of the world.

  Walter Cronkite

  Law, Justice, Priorities

  "United Nations, National Sovereignty and the Future of the World". Speech upon receiving the Norman Cousins Global Governance Award, the UN Delegates Dining Room, www.thirdworldtraveler.com. October 19, 1999.

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• We think that computers are the most remarkable tools that humankind has ever come up with, and we think that people are basically tool users. So if we can just get lots of computers to lots of people, it will make some qualitative difference to the world.

  Steve Jobs

  Thinking, Differences, People

  "Playboy Interview: Steve Jobs". Interview With David Sheff, reprints.longform.org. February 1985.

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• Curiosity is the essence of human existence and exploration has been part of humankind for a long time. The exploration of space, like the exploration of life, if you will, is a risk. We've got to be willing to take it.

  Gene Cernan

  Essence, Space, Long

  "Is the shuttle worth it?" by Richard Stenger, www.cnn.com. February 5, 2003.

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• Whether or not it is ultimately the best of all conceivable scripts for Korean, Hangeul must unquestionably rank as one of the great intellectual achievements of humankind.

  Geoffrey Sampson

  Achievement, Intellectual, Scripts

  "Fifty Wonders of Korea Volume 1: Culture and Art". Book by Korean Spirit and Culture Promotion Project, 2007.

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• At whatever time highly skilled physicians shall have developed the healing of illnesses by means of foods, and shall make provision for simple foods, and shall prohibit humankind from living as slaves to their lustful appetites, it is certain that the incidence of chronic and diversified illnesses will abate, and the general health of all mankind will be much improved. This is destined to come about. In the same way, in the character, the conduct and the manners of men, universal modifications will be made.

  Abdu'l-Bahá

  Healing, Character, Mean

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